Chicon I was sponsored by Illini Fantasy Fictioneer, a club set up for the purpose, and run by a triumvirate. Reinsberg held the title of chairman (he'd won that title in a "bitter struggle" with W. Lawrence Hamling who claimed to have elected), with Erle Korshak (secretary and executive advisor) and Bob Tucker (treasurer and Director of the IFF) as equal partners. Sully Roberds did publications. Korshak presided over the opening day of the con, when Reinsberg fell ill.

Although the official membership count was 128, Tucker reported that Ray Palmer signed the membership book five times, using his own name and four of his pseudonyms. (This appears to have been common in the early days.)

The Chicon was also the place where Claude Degler made his first public appearance at a fannish event.